Buon Giorno world. It was a long, at times fantastic, at times disappointing, weekend. To start, the Bears lost, the Hawks lost, and so did the other front-runners in the Big Ten. That's a tough pill to swallow this early in the year, but I guess we'll have to see if either football team can salvage the season. It's still a long road for the Bears, but the Hawks better win out or this season could be considered a disappointment by fans who had high expectations (me).

Friday was definitely good times; a skeleton crew that was missing several forum members attended a charity event for hurricane victims in Wrigleyville. We brought clothes and other assorted cold-weather gear for north-bound evacuees and indulged in an open bar for the cause as well. In case you haven't donated yet to the relief effort, please do so here. There are still thousands of people in dire situations.

Anyway, cheers to those who got together and drank for the cause. It's a good one.

Saturday the lack of Gate and Dolph being on-call for the Iowa game was more than made up for by an impressive game day effort by GRide's First Lady Mary and her band of ruffian Hawk fans. The crowd was in a rowdy mood at Sedgwick's, but it wasn't enough to spur the Hawks to a comeback victory. The loss was followed by a light dinner of Jagermeister and a dry cabernet.

Props to A Long Man and Emily for providing venues for us to drink away the pain of the brutal loss at the hands of the hated Cyclones. That was accomplished with varying degrees of success, with Mary leading the charge and finishing first in the race to checking out for the evening. In any case, I had a great time Saturday, which you can't always say when you get beat that bad in a big game like Iowa State. Here's hoping things turn out differently next week when we take on UNI.

Have a good week at work, school, or on the road (Dolph is carousing in Zurich and Majorca this week and by all reports, having a pretty spectacular run of it over there. Those are some beautiful venues, make the most of it big guy.).

Drinks or lunch this week? I live in the loop these days, it's sad. If you are here all the time too, Email me.

Moving on...here are some thoughts for today. I was feeling a little Greek-y when I woke up, as I re-read some stuff yesterday that I wrote about John Rawls and Aristotle a few years back when I was here. So here are a few things from the Nicomachean Ethics that I like-

"Young people are in a condition like permanent intoxication, because youth is sweet and they are growing." I definitely feel like this most of the time. The question is, for how long?

"What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do." I wrote about what this means for moral imperatives once, and I always liked it.

"Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods." Although the translation is bad when you get into words like "friend" ("Philia" in Greek), books 8 and 9 of the Ethics, discussing friends, is good and good-for-you reading. Funny how some stuff doesn't ever become dated.

and finally,
"I'm serious. I'd rather have a sex change than go to Iowa State." Priceless, Mary.

Until soon.